The Apennines will not be overwhelmed by the coming and going of the tankers that will have to take away the water from the Bargi power station, devastated by the explosion on April 9th. After weighing all the pros and cons, the choice was made a softer approach: a will be set up purification plant which will receive the water remaining inside directly from the water pumps already working in the area: as the operation proceeds, Arpae technicians will analyze it before allowing it to be released into Lake Suviana. The procedure, Enel assures, will provide maximum environmental guarantees and will not force the inhabitants of the area and tourists to live with the continuous passage of heavy vehicles.
Emptying operations
Meanwhile, it is the regional environmental agency itself, one month after the explosion, which confirms that the waters of the Suviana basin are of good quality. «The control and monitoring activity continues to be constant – they assure from Arpae – even in this post-emergency phase in which the emptying of the power station”. There is also “a clear progressive improvement” regarding the presence of hydrocarbons, which are only reported “at the surface sampling point in the center of the lake”. I am different monitoring points monitored by technicians: the bank of the reservoir near the plant, the center of the basin, the dam area, the Limentra stream upstream and downstream of the reservoir, the Reno river downstream of the confluence with the stream in the Lama di Reno. The agency confirms that the water is regularly used for drinking water supply, but issues a warning: «It is important that all the operations that will be carried out in the plant maintain the good environmental conditions of the water».
Removal of oils finished
Meanwhile, the operations have ended removal of surface oils. However, the intervention of the divers inside the plant to close the bulkhead from which the water continues to enter has been postponed, in all likelihood to the middle of the month. The problem is linked to the current situation which sees the water level of the lake almost 3 meters higher than that present in the power plant. In such conditions it is impossible to start the intervention: it is necessary to bring the door leaf to 80 centimeters and for this it is still necessary to have patience, because the rains slowed down operations.
On the investigation front, coordinated by the prosecutor Giuseppe Amato and the deputies Flavio Lazzarini and Michela Guidi, news is expected within a few days regarding the analysis of the two Scada systems (the black boxes of the plant) and the consequent evaluation on the unrepeatability of the investigations.
The injured
However, the families of the injured cannot yet breathe a sigh of relief. I am in slight improvementfinally, the conditions of Leonardo Cooled, the 42-year-old from Camugnano who was injured in the explosion and hospitalized at Bufalini in Cesena: the man who suffered deep wounds to his hands and suffered from serious respiratory problems is no longer intubated, but the prognosis remains confidential. Two other people injured in the accident are hospitalized with a reserved prognosis: 59-year-old Sandro Busetto in Pisa and 54-year-old Stefano Bellabona in Padua.
